Maggie's Farm

I'll wrap up my Newport photo dump with a few pics from the Flower Show, which is the main reason Mrs. BD dragged me to Rhode Island last weekend. The Newport Flower Show is what the gardening and arranging ladies term an "important" show. It attracts garden club competitors from as far as Texas, and it raises lots of money for the Preservation Society of Newport County.

Mrs. BD did not have an entry in the show this year, but she likes to keep a finger on the pulse of things.

Last weekend's show was held at Rosecliff, one of the loveliest Newport cottages. Guy who built it was a Comstock Lode heir. My photos do not capture how crowded the place was with flower people and their tolerant husbands, mostly, like me, feigning deep interest and appreciation while furtively glancing at one's watch.

More pics of the show below the fold -

Re-posted today because I had a female Ruby-Throated flirting with me yesterday while I was watering some hanging baskets of flowers. Fearless critter. Seemed to want to frolic in the spray.

Chances are that the first time you saw a hummingbird, you paid it no attention, imagining it to be a passing dragonfly or some other fleeting buzzing bug. In the Eastern half of the US, we have only one species – the Ruby Throated.

This 3-4-inch bird is usually only seen when hovering over flowers, because otherwise he is tiny and darting in flight, and his wings are a humming blur. You have to be very close to hear the hum.

These insect-like birds are probably more abundant in your area than you realize, but if you want to see them often, you need a hummingbird garden. (Those sugar-water hummingbird feeders offer no real nutrition, and the red coloring is thought to be somewhat toxic.) He feeds on nectar and small bugs hidden in the flowers, and prefers flowers which are designed for pollination by hummingbirds – often red in color and vase-shaped for his long beak. Red Trumpet Vine (in photo) is a favorite, as is azalea in the south, but they like monarda too. I find their favorite at my place is Crocosmia – which is in bloom now along with the monarda, and the trumpet vine on my wall. I highly recommend Crocosmia – the bulbs are a bit expensive but, once established, they multiply rapidly and they have attractive foliage. White Flower Farm has a large selection. In the woods, I typically see hummingbirds around patches of Jewelweed, which likes damp areas.

Read more about the Ruby Throated here. How do these fragile creatures make it across the Gulf of Mexico to winter in South America?

The print is Audubon's, the Ruby Throat with Trumpet Vine.

Speaking of hummingbirds, don’t forget the Dixie Hummingbirds.

Our planting and transplanting season is now done, as is my anniversary gift to Mrs. BD which entailed two solid weekend days of being a submissive garden slave, taking all orders with shovel, wheelbarrow, trimmers, saws, mulch, and the final load of plantings. Beer breaks and a couple of ceegars, natch. I am the brawn, she is the brains.

Transplanting shrubs and perennials is like musical chairs. There is always at least one thing that ends up with no place to go, and is left to die, roots up in the sun. Murder.

Mrs. BD has been getting interested in putting dwarf shrubs in perennial borders in recent years. In this bed, we had moved some hybrid Rhodies out two months ago, and moved those lacecap hydrangeas back against the wall (they will revive just fine, but look a little wan right now). That left a hole for these three new red-leafed dwarf Weigelas to the left of the dwarf Buddleas. It will all fill in nicely in a year or so with the goal, of course, being no space between plants for weeds to grow:

The edge is Lady's Mantle, in full bloom. It makes a solid and subtle perennial edge with its pale yellow-green florets.

Here's one site with dwarf Weigelas.

Hereabouts, it's time to yank out the Spring pansies. Many people have the nurseries fill their planters right about now, but people like Mrs. BD like to do them herself.

She says all you need to know is that a planter needs one thriller, a few spillers, and filler - with interesting foliage contrast and compatible color. It's a form of flower arranging. In a couple of weeks, these pots will be looking good:

Also known as Catmint (it is related to Catnip). It's a long-blooming front-of-the-border plant, and will re-bloom later if the exhausted blooms are cut off. It comes in a few cultivars of varying heights.

This was yesterday. Note the happy Digitalis on the left. Little Lamb's Ear Hydrangea in front.

Something valuable for your garden: a dwarf Buddleia called "Blue Chip." This new Buddleia (Butterfly Bush) is only 2' high, max, and thus can function like a perennial flower in a border while drawing butterflies from miles around. Plus they claim it blooms all summer, unlike my full-sized Buddleias. I have a spot for a few of these guys.

Wayside is the only place I know that has them. Loony Greenies should avoid them: they are genetically-engineered. Like Labrador Retrievers, corn on the cob - and cotton.

Hummingbirds like them too.

The Wood Hyacinth is not a true Hyacinth, the popular bulb brought to Europe from Turkey.

The Wood Hyacinth, or English Bluebell, or Common Bluebell, is a native of Western Europe. Today, there are many cultivars of this fine April/May-blooming woodland bulb which, when happy, spreads vigorously.

In my opinion, it is much preferable to the gaudy and artificial-looking, plastic-looking true Hyacinth.

Photo on right is a "Bluebell Woods" in England.

My photo below is our tiny patch of it this morning. It will spread though, in time.

Ours is in full bloom this morning.

Saw this tree in bloom today behind a very good fish store, growing out of a hole in the asphalt. Never seen this sort of tree before. The wisteria-colored, tubular 2" blooms hang down, and last year's nut-like seed pods are still on the branches. The trunk looks like the trunk of a fast-growing trash tree. Quite a wonderful small tree, with the elegant blooms before the leaves emerge:

Reader got the name for me on the first try. Thanks. I had no idea what it was: The Empress Tree, Paulownia tomentosa. AKA Foxglove Tree. The blossoms do resemble Digitalis.

For an "invasive" trash tree which will grow anywhere, it sure is mighty purty in early May. My other photos of it below -

Ever gnaw on a raw Rhubarb stem? I used to love that, when I was a kid. Especially the tender thin stems. Huge flavor, tangy, bitter, spicey.

While "researching" this post, I learned that it's commonly done in Turkey and Iraq. Our garden rhubarb came from China. The leaves are poisonous. There are lots of types of rhubarbs, most inedible.

Rhubarb is the most reliable edible perennial that you can have in your northern garden. Just throw some manure on them every Spring, and you're done. The only problem I have had with them (my last patch) was that the plants kept going to flower and seed without producing new stems. I guess I should have cut off the flowering stems sooner.

How to make a rhubarb patch.

A few fine Rhubarb recipes (don't talk to me about Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie which is an insult to both Strawberry and Rhubarb).

Rhubarb Crisp

Rhubarb Tart

Rhubarb Custard Pie

Our Dicentra is beginning to bloom right now, even though it's another late spring up here and still cool. The plants begin to bloom as soon as they are out of the ground. No plant shoots up as quickly, and it's almost too early to enjoy their brief period of glory. Not counting the early bulbs, Dicentra is our first bloomer.

By August, the plant will wither up into nothing. Early-bloomers do that.

More about Bleeding Hearts here. The wild, native woodland version is white.

Even the pros get confused about how to grow the hundreds of cultivars of the beloved Hydrangea family of flowering shrubs. Each Spring, I renew my confusion - especially when it comes to the topic of pruning the different categories. Not to mention the newer ever-blooming types.

Most nursery plants are Asian in origin (obviously with plenty of genetic engineering applied to them for blooming purposes), but the old-fashioned Arborescens group derives from the North American wild plant. My favorites are the lacecap types, but I admire them all.

Here are a few things I have learned, none of which applies to all Hydrangeas:

- Hydrangeas like water, and generally do not prefer full-day sun. At least half-day is fine, preferably in the morning. Full shade does not work.

- The pink and/or blue hydrangeas are indeed acidity-sensitive in flower color

- Planting them where they are free to attain their full size without normal pruning (other than that all deciduous shrubs, once they are established and healthy, benefit from removal of 1/4 to 1/3 of the plant down to the ground, or at least the leggy or woody stems, each year) eliminates a lot of complexity.

- Save the dang plant label in a file (best to do with any new plant)

- Hydrangeas do not like much nitrogen fertilizing: it makes them grow leaves, not blooms.

- If you trim or prune your plant wrong, or at the wrong time, you won't get any bloom. Some bloom on new growth, some on last year's growth, and some seem just to do their own thing.

Here's a very basic Identify your hydrangea.

Here's Pruning your Hydrangeas. Here's more info on that topic.

Here are some basics on growing Hydrangeas

Photo on top: A lacecap, "Blue Wave"
Photo in middle: Mopheads in CT
Photo below: Hydrangeas in the rain on Isola Bella two years ago

Well-organized amateur gardeners keep some sort of calendar or journal of annual tasks to be done (eg April: prune forsythias when blooms done), and a record of things planted (with exact names and maintenance needs).

I keep a casual record and to-do list on my computer with links to tips and info that I tend to forget (I do have a lot of plants with Special Needs), but some more serious folks prefer these pre-printed formats.

Constructing and maintaining shrub and perennial gardens is a Maggie's Farm hobby. Here's good gardening advice from a commenter at some gardening site I was looking at the other day:

JUST STOP!

Take a deep breath and a few steps away from the tree. Look at the package you have created and realize that you are more of a "crammer" than a designer. Your apparent desire is not to better display your specimen but rather to create more room to cram in ever more plants - "I want to be able to have the bottom more open for plants under it."

I believe the overall effect of your landscape would be much improved if you graduated to the design level where you begin an analysis of what you already have and start editing. DIY'ers often fail to realize that as gardens mature, they are dealing with a different set of design parameters than when they began. This present situation requires a different thought process.

When you first began, it was probably "more is better" because you had so much open space to fill. Your landscape has matured to the point that it is now craving some unity and simplification -- yet, here you are trying to figure out how to add even more.

When you go out, do you put on every piece of jewelry that you own or do you select only a few that serve to highlight? Think about your garden in the same way.

Image is a well-balanced garden, mature and perfect, at Christchurch, Oxford, from a post on English Gardens

Thanks to AGW, looks like we're in for two days of soaking rain. That's perfect timing, because I did all of my Spring fertilizing this weekend: lawn, perennial gardens, shrubs, Raspberries - and Holly-Tone for the Rhodies, azaleas, hollies, etc. (I also put down Preen on most of the flower gardens. It saves a lot of trouble to put it down before the first weed seeds germinate.)

It makes sense to fertilize before things green up, because the roots wake up hungry and begin growing many weeks before anything green emerges. Early Spring is when roots do most of their growing.

This specimen plant is a contorted variant of a member of the Hazel/Filbert family. It is of most interest when its leaves are off because the dense foliage conceals most of the branches.

Mine is coming into bloom with its catkins right now:

From our archives, because the sound of saws is constant around here this week:

Burning carbon to kill trees! Good work and good fun.

The gasoline-powered chainsaw is one of the finest inventions since the wheel and the plow. It's really just a mechanized stone axe like my Indian sncestors used, and I am eagerly awaiting the laser saw to bring wood cutting into the 21st Century.

While the engineering principles of the chainsaw may go back to surgical instruments of the 1800s, the modern concept dates to the 1920's with bulky and impractical designs until the German engineer Andreas Stihl developed his "tree-cutting machine" around 1929. The one-man saw dates to around 1950 and was perfected by Stihl and their main competitor, the weapons manufacturer Husqvarna. The Stihl family still owns their company. Check out their saws here. (No, this is not an advt.)

I have always enjoyed power saws: my godfather's father started the Wright Saw Company in CT, which produces a reciprocating power saw - an anomaly in the development of power saws which never really caught on except for special uses.

Doing mine this afternoon. Last chance, and easy to do if your August pruning was correct.

Time to begin planning. Our annual free ad for Miller Nurseries. 

Yes, they do sell Brown Turkey Fig, which is readily grown in southern New England. They also have the Celeste Fig. 

Bright red berries produced in the fall close along the stems of a deciduous shrub, most often in damp areas in the Eastern US, is Winterberry - Ilex verticillata.

Yes some ilex, ie hollies, are deciduous.

Many cultivars with larger and more abundant berries are now available of this native shrub. They are commonly used in weaths and Christmas plant arrangements. Still, the plant looks best in the woods and swamps.

A re-post from July, 2007

It is now hay-making time in Yankeeland. I cannot imagine mowing an entire hayfield with a scythe, but they are excellent tools once you get the hang of the motion, especially for steep or hard-to-reach places.

In the words of Wendell Berry:

"The Marugg grass scythe proves itself an excellent tool. It is the most satisfying hand tool that I have ever used. In tough grass it cuts a little less uniformly than the power scythe. In all other ways, in my opinion, it is a better tool because, it is light, it handles gracefully & comfortably even on steep ground, it is far less dangerous, it is quiet & makes no fumes, it is much more adaptable. In rank growth one narrows the cut & shortens the stroke. It always starts - provided the user will start. Aside from reasonable skill & care in use, there are no maintenance problems. It requires no fuel or oil. It runs on breakfast. It’s cheaper to buy than most weed eaters & is cheaper to use than any other power mower. And best of all it’s good exercise."

Berry wrote a short story titled The Good Scythe.

I suffer from a decadent weakness for power tools and power equipment - anything that uses gas or electricity -  but I am sure Berry is right. I do have two large patches on the farm that require a scythe. One is too steep for the tractor, and one is too muddy for the TR or the tractor. A stuck-in-the-mud heavy machine is no fun at all.

If you live in the Northeast, your gardens and plantings are, right now, being attacked by the unwanted and unwelcome alien Porcelainberry.

This aggressive Asian weed vine was introduced as a decorative ground cover, but it is a cancer with the ability to grow 15' or more per year, and to smother anything you have planted. If you pull it up, get the entire root - or poison it.

The birds poop the seeds everywhere, so they come up everywhere around here. Especially in gardens. Their roots are tenacious.

As its leaves demonstrate, it is a member of the grape family and it can be confused with the native wild grape, which is a much less aggressive plant. You can read all about Porcelainberry here, and about how to try to get rid of it.

We have a couple of Pee Wee Hydrangeas in our compact front entry garden, which is part shade. They are the dwarf form of the big Oakleaf Hydrangea, and are not too easy to find.

I highly recommend them for shrub/perennial borders. Like everything else, they take several years to reach their full size (which is around 3'x3' or 4X4). Ours are in full bloom right now:

I planted this Bottlebrush Buckeye about 7 years ago, when it was a few 12"-tall bare sticks. Good things take a while. Mrs. BD says it was 8 years ago. You rarely seen them grown in New England. The Buckeye, of course, is a heartland plant.

This is with early morning sun glowing through those flowers yesterday. The plant is about 7' tall. I think it's like a candelabra:

Mrs. BD loves her Little Lambs. It is a very special paniculata hydrangea.

I have never known anyone who did not enjoy hydrangeas.

Before you mess with hydrangeas, you need to know whether a plant is a macrophylla, oakleaf, arborescens, or a paniculata-type. The handling of each type is different - especially the pruning - and they vary in spring frost hardiness.

A good hydrangea site.

An annual re-post -

Everybody has an opinion on pruning tomato plants. Here's my view of the subject.

First, I'll assume we are growing "Indeterminate" types of tomatoes, i.e. vine tomatoes as opposed to the tree-like ("determinate," aka "bush" tomatoes) ones often grown in pots. Left alone, vine tomatoes will grow 10+ feet along the ground, as you can often see in gardens in Bermuda, but we stake them.

Up here in New England (Yankeeland), we need to prune them because our short growing season doesn't allow much time for good fruit formation. We have to prune most of the suckers and plenty of their leaves, and we cut their tops off in July or August - all so they will put their energy into good fruit and not into further pointless growth.

Further south, diligent pruning is less important.

And even though I grow mine in fine soft soil, I fertilize them with liquid fertilizer whenever I think of it. I usually have lots of plants, but only ended up with 10-12 this year of around 5 varieties.

Here's the best site I have seen on indeterminate tomato vine gardening. For all of the effort, and despite our short season, it is well-worth it when you pick one on a hot day and eat it in the garden like an apple. A little salt on it.

Image: Commercial tomato picking in North Carolina

The Madame Hardy Rose, a Damask Rose, was bred by Alexandre Hardy in 1832.

My brother in CT emailed the photo with this note: "You gave this plant to me 15 years ago, and it's still doing well. I have never had a rose survive this long."

These folks waste no space on lawn, and seem to plant every spare inch except for grassy paths. But who does the weeding?

A few easy-growing salad (and I hate salad - rabbit food) greens for the garden that even I enjoy. I would never use these things in a mixed green salad, because you lose the flavor and character of the individual thing.

These are greens that you can plant every two or three weeks during the spring and summer, and harvest small and tender. Some of them will grow back after harvesting the leaves. They are often commercially grown hydroponically these days.

My favorite is Mache (aka Corn Salad), a sweet, tender mayonnaise-tasting leaf

Frisee, a member of the Chickory family. Bitter, tangy, crunchy: good to precede a game meal, grilled lamb, or steak. Never salad with the main course, in our view, unless it's a buffet, because salad dressing messes up the flavors of the main course.

Garden Cress, a member of the Mustard family. Sort of like Watercress.

Dandelion. Spicey with a bit of crunch.

Arugula. The strange kerosene flavor grows on you. Just try to ignore the fact that Liberals like it.

Short growing season up here. Ours are just getting going, but I already have some blossoms. Please do not tell me what you have in South Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri. Fact is, I do like it here despite the high taxes and the short growing season.

We do not even bother with the Beefsteaks and Beefmasters. No point to it. Lucky to get a decent harvest of them before the first frost. Big Boys work, though, and they are OK. Each one of my plants is a different variety. I like the pear-shaped mini yellows, the orange ones, the sweet millions, the Big Boys and the Big Girls, etc etc.

They say that fully healthy roses cannot be harmed by aphid infestations, and that may be true. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and it makes no sense to go out on strike until it appears.

We have abundant Rose Aphids this spring, but haven't seen them for the past few years.

We mix liquid dish soap at the rate of 1 tbsp/gallon in spray bottles, and spray the roses, especially their succulent tips, with it. Dead aphids by the thousands, without poisoning anything else. The surfactant suffocates the buggers. I brush off any Ladybugs first.

Mrs. BD claims that she is waterboarding them to death.

One treatment ought to do it. Best done before the first bloom. Had to do it today.

Ever tried growing Blueberries?

I have tried any number of times and man, are they picky. I place them on the list of plants that only thrive where they feel like it. If they aren't happy, there ain't nothin you can do about it.

You just have to admit defeat. 

Even if you have some modest success, without netting I would lose all of the berries to the Robins and Catbirds.

On the farm where I spent my weekends growing up, wild blueberries grew all along the hayfield edges, reaching out from the woods over the barbed-wire fences. They grew up to 8' high, so every age had his own level to pick. They were so productive that it was no problem sharing with the birds. My Mom took coffee cans, made two holes with a nail and strung a string through them to hang around your neck, and painted our names on them with blue paint spots to indicate "berry can." Those cans hung in the barn for years.

I have seen similar wonderful areas of wild highbush blueberries on Cape Cod, but was never there much during blueberry season. Despite what is said about growing them, the wild bushes seem to like boggy edges, or at least lowlands. There is no doubt that they need acidic soil. Not being a Maine guy except during grouse season, I have no experience with the Lowbush Blueberry.

After a picking, my Mom would always make a Blueberry flat cake with hard sauce. Wow. Such memories. It's too bad there are no wild Blueberries on Maggie's Farm, but there are none.

The Blueberry is not a true fruit. Furthermore, it's in the Rhodadendron family. It's in the (marketing) category of "superfruits" because they are supposed to be "good for you," whatever the heck that means (probably nothing).

With some new full-sun garden space, I was considering trying again with a row of around 6 Blueberry bushes. Problem is, I want the small dark wild ones that look more black than blue with the intense wild tang, and not the fancy, fat, overly-sweet hybrids that you can get at the store anyway. Plus I don't want to bother with netting.

Wiki has a good Blueberry entry. So does the US Highbush Blueberry Council.

"Tobacco netting" for berries. Other ways to keep the birds from eating all of your berry crops.

Also, in the NYT, a little story about a family of Scarlet Tanagers - a splendid bird - getting caught under bird netting. The netting has to be well-secured.

These Tanagers are not rare in Eastern deciduous woodlands, but they aren't seen often because they tend to forage high and quiet. Here's the CLO bit on them.

A planted space (aka "a garden") isn't a "space" without the sense of, a suggestion of, or the reality of, enclosure - regardless of scale; whether the scale is a 20X20' herb or rose garden or a 50-100 acre meadow bounded by woods or windbreaks. Just like a picture wants a frame.

I think that comfortable feeling is deeply embedded in the human soul, and it is the reason garden designers speak of outdoor "rooms." I kinda prefer designing or thinking about outdoor "hallways" - the paths which lead from space to space. Hallways, though, must lead to rooms or they have no meaning and no purpose.

Yesterday:

The new garden path that I mentioned on the Spring to-do list. Besides looking nice, it solved the problem of the previously muddy route that the dog always takes on his routine patrols for enemies and intruders. Fortunately, he likes the new path. No, I did not build it myself but I could have, given the time.

The Mrs. did a nice job with her new semi-shade border, but it will take a year or three to mature. As you can see, I pruned the heck out of that young Crepe Myrtle behind the hybrid Rhodies. Maybe too much. That's a small Kousa Dogwood on the corner.

New shrubs in - done, mostly...
New Hostas and 200 Lariope in - done
Various transplanting - done
Gardens mulched - done
Window washing, 27 double-paned double windows - done
House power-washed - done
Evil weeds weeded or poisoned - done (for the nonce)
Lawns top-dressed, reseeded and fertilized - done
New front hallway lighting fixture - installed.
Shotguns - clean and oil for their summer rest - done
Boxwoods treated with medicine - done (it worked)
Trees and shrubs pruned - done
Gardens given good dose of Preen - done
Gardens, roses, and shrubs fertilized - done
New washer and dryer - done. I preferred the 16 year-old ones, though.
Various and misc. re-painting - done or in process
Carpets shampooed - done
Broken and fragile door fixtures - replaced or repaired
Crumbling back doorway stone steps - replaced and much improved
New gravel garden path - done
New fence - installed. Awaiting Tom Sawyer.
Broken outdoor faucet and internal leak - replaced and repaired
Driveway - re-graded, re-gravelled, and compressed - done
Slate patio and outdoor furniture powerwashing - done
3 deliveries of clothes and misc. stuff to Good Will - done
Winter log piles moved - done
New master bath mirrors - installed, but they reveal too much
Raspberries pruned - done
New trellis - installed
Carpenter bee infestation of pergola - killed
Veggie garden cleaned up and ready for planting - mostly done
Garage/shed cleaned up - good enuf for government work
Tennis racquets - re-strung
Heavy-duty house cleaners - scheduled
Old, wonderful and beloved half-broken and now-dangerous trampoline - scheduled for removal to trampoline heaven.

Coon-proofing garbage bin - not done. It is beyond human capacity.
Outdoor lighting wiring - done, awaiting fixture decisions
Mountains of clothes to be picked up and put away - it will never happen in my lifetime. Where am I to put all of my hunting and winter stuff?

Ah, the joys of home-ownership. Can we go out and play now?

How is your Spring check-list coming along?

I am putting mine in the ground today, after using my car as a greenhouse for a couple of weeks. I have 6 varieties this time. Always those Sweet Million cherry tomatoes, and always the classic Beefsteaks, even though they aren't ready around here until mid-late August. Still worth it for a few weeks of them. Some yellows. No plum tomatoes - the canned are fine with me if they are going to be cooked anyway.

Are yours in yet?

I think we did a good job on this little corner. Nepeta (which won't be blooming for a while), some giant allium and regular allium in bloom right now, Wisteria overhead getting ready to bloom (pruned them so hard this winter they might be disappointing this Spring), low boxwood hedging and a thick row of those dwarf yellow lilies heading up on the right. I forget the name of those clumps of bulbs with the bell-like purple flowers, but they are pleasant.

The pup just ate two baby bunnies (Cottontail rabbits). One baby ran away. He found their nest while we were doing outdoor clean-up. The pup was helping, of course.

It's always been my philosophy that too much outdoor clean-up is bad for the wild critters, and we love our wild critters. The early Mother's Day present to the Mrs. was the work of 4 yard guys for 4 days, plus however-many truckloads of black mulch, plus a couple of dumpsters. Three loads of mulch did the job, barely, but the garden beds look spiffy for the moment. But, sadly, with fewer bunnies.

That's our second truck load of it. This black stuff looks best, and only costs a little bit more for your garden beds. A 6" layer does the job.